Home from Paris and Le Cordon Bleu, author Flinn is wondering what to do
with her life. She really has no interest in owning a restaurant, and
is getting tired of people asking her when she's going to open one (and
on a similar line, when are she and her husband going to have a
baby...). Then, in a grocery store, inspiration hits: she sees a woman
whose grocery cart is full of processed foods, and the reason? Because
she doesn't feel she can cook. It's intimidating. She doesn't know how.
It's too hard. Thus, the Project is born: Flinn finds nine volunteers
all who are generally insecure about cooking, and persuades them to come
in for a series of lessons on cooking basics. Flinn's goal: to give
them the skills and confidence to cook and turn away from fast food and
processed food.

I'll tell you straight up: I learned a lot from this book. A lot. And that was listening to the audio version. I need to go out and purchase the book, so I can have it as a reference in my kitchen. She really does go over all the basics: knife skills, chicken, meat, vegetables, braising, roasting, soup, salad, vinaigrette... it's all in there. And Flinn is a good teacher. I'm sure her nine volunteers learned a lot from the classes, but she was able to convey what was taught -- with a few side trips, to Rome and some fancy dinner parties to raise money -- through her words in a way that engaged and interested me. I ended up thinking about this as a practical Michael Pollan: while he spouts ideals (and good ones at that), Flinn actually gives people the tools to use in putting those ideals -- eating real food, cooking with real ingredients -- to use.

The woman who read the book grated on me at first; she has weird pauses in the middle of sentences that bothered me. Also: listening to recipes being read aloud isn't that great, so I ended up skipping those. Even with those shortcomings (and they're not even Flinn's fault), it's the best kind of food book: useful, interesting, yummy-sounding
with dozens of good recipes that are easy to use. Hopefully, it'll do
for you what it did for me: inspire you to cook.

I'm reading this one right now with my mom and sisters and we're all really enjoying it. We all have such different experiences in the kitchen but we're able to each take something and make it our own.

And Yes! You do need to get a copy of the book! I recently made the 5 Minute Artisan Bread recipe that she shares and it turned out delicious.

Who is Book Nut?

Voracious reader of Middle Grade and YA fiction/science fiction-fantasy. Sometime reader of adult books and non-fiction, with a soft spot for food and travel. Interested in books with people of color. Has never enjoyed a contemporary crime/thriller novel.

Reviews everything that she picks up: good, the bad and the ugly. Very picky about accepting review copies; as a mother of four, there's only so many reading hours in a day.

Can send any and all requests, comments and complaints to mmfbooks@gmail.com.